Chocolate & raspberry macaroons

Ingredients

For the filling

120g double cream

110g dark chocolate, finely chopped

25g unsalted butter, room temperature

75g raspberry jam

Method

Place the icing sugar and ground almonds in the bowl of a food processor and pulse about 15 times until fully combined. Sieve this mixture into a large bowl, discarding any particles that stay in the sieve. Add the first batch of egg whites to the almond mixture, mix to form a thick paste and set aside.

Tip the second batch of egg whites into a spotlessly clean, heatproof bowl and have an electric whisk at the ready. Place 50ml water and the granulated sugar into a small saucepan on medium heat. Bring to a boil and cook until the syrup registers 110C, using a sugar thermometer, at which time start to beat the egg whites on high speed. Once the syrup is at 118C pour it slowly down the side of the mixer bowl, avoiding the moving whisk. Continue to whisk on high until the mixture has cooled slightly and you have a shiny peaked meringue mixture – the bowl should no longer be hot to the touch, but still warm. Add the colouring and whisk to combine.

Tip the meringue onto the almond mixture and gently fold together. It is important not to over-mix the batter – it should fall in a thick ribbon from the spatula (A). The ribbon should also fade back into the batter within about 30 secs – if it doesn’t, fold a few more times.

Heat oven to 170C/150C fan/gas 3-4. Line 3 baking sheets with baking parchment. Transfer the batter to a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle. Pipe rounds about 2.5cm in diameter onto the prepared baking sheets (B). Leave to rest for 30 mins out of the fridge, or until the macaroons have developed a skin.

Bake the macaroons for 14 mins (this needs to be precise so you could test a macaroon first). Immediately slide the parchment onto the work surface and cool for a few minutes before gently peeling the macaroons off the paper.

To make the filling, place the cream in a small saucepan and the chocolate in a medium bowl. Bring the cream just to the boil and pour over the chocolate. Leave to stand for a few mins, then stir to combine. Add the butter and stir until smooth, then leave to set until thickened. Place the chocolate mix into a clean piping bag with a smaller nozzle and pipe around the edge of half the macaroons (C). Fill the centre with jam and sandwich with another macaroon shell.

Chocolate Frosting (amount depends on moistness of cake. I used two big spoonfuls. See video)

2 boxes Premium white chocolate ( I used Baker’s brand)

cake pop sticks

sprinkles

Instructions

Add cake to a large bowl.

Crumble until it resembles fine crumbs

Add in frosting a little bit at a time until cake is moist and can hold a ball shape, yet still slightly crumbly.

Use your hands to incorporate the frosting into the cake crumbs.

Use a mini ice cream scoop and scoop out two balls of cake mixture.

Roll the mixture into a tight ball and place on a plate.

Repeat until all the cake mixture has been rolled into balls.

Melt 2-4 ounces of white chocolate in the microwave.

Dip the tip of the cake pop sticks into the white chocolate and insert into the cake balls about half-way.

Freeze for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile prepare all of your decorating supplies.

Melt the remaining chocolate in a large cup. Make sure you have enough chocolate to completely submerge the cake ball.

Remove cake balls from freezer.

Dip cake balls carefully into the chocolate until covered.

Let the excess chocolate drip off. Swirl and tap gently if needed.

Add the sprinkles while the chocolate is still wet. It will harden quickly.

Stick the decorated cake pop into a styrofoam block to finish setting.

Place into the freezer to speed up setting time.

Cover with a clear treat bag & ribbon for gift giving, if desired.

Store in a single layer, in an airtight container.

Enjoy!

Notes

~TIPS~ Want to use food coloring? I’d suggest using the candy melts instead of white chocolate for the coating. I wasn’t impressed with how the white chocolate took the food coloring. It made the chocolate thicker.I purchased all of my ingredients including the cake pop sticks and sprinkles at Target. The styrofoam I had already, but you can get a block of styrofoam at crafts stores or Walmart. The recipe (using only ½ of a 9 X 13 cake) makes about 13 medium sized cake balls. Feel free to change up the cake, frosting and coating. Red velvet cake, with cream cheese frosting and white chocolate coconut coating is really good! You can also use home made cake and home-made frosting but I seriously can’t tell the difference in taste.

Kelly Osbourne and Taylor Swift get down to it in the kitchen!

#New Girl Group we are ##Girls Night baking with @taylorswift you guys have no idea how good Taylor is at cooking! #shocked The Culinary Patience Turtles@taylorswift@claire_winter. She went on to add “In home made foodie heaven. Our home made chocolate peppermint cookies are amazing! ”

Oh they have been busy! Diet out the window then hey Kel!

Here are a few tips when making these cookies:

Don’t make the dough until you’re ready to use it. It does not need to be refrigerated. It goes straight from the mixing bowl to the counter to roll out.

Make sure the butter is at room temperature and cut into small chunks to mix into the dry ingredients… otherwise the cookies won’t bake up right. Weird but true.

When making the filling, Chop the chocolate as fine as you can. Even if you’re lazy like me… keep chopping. This will insure that all of the chocolate melts when the hot cream is poured over it. I don’t like lumps. I’m assuming that you don’t like lumps either.

To fill the cookies you can use either a pastry bag or a 1/2 teaspoon. Both work!

In a small saucepan, bring the cream to boil over medium heat. Remove from the heat and add the finely chopped white chocolate and peppermint extract. Make sure all the chocolate is covered by the cream. Let stand for 1 minute (this is important), then whisk the white chocolate until completely melted.

Transfer the filling to a small bowl and let stand until room temperature. You’

ll need the filling thicker to assemble the cookies, so cover the filling and place it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or an hour, until a thick consistency is reached. If the filling hardens too much, it can be rewarmed in the microwave for a few seconds. It’s best if left at room temperature until the proper consistency is achieved. This meant leaving it out overnight for me.

For the Cookies:

Position the racks in the lower and upper thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt and mix on low speed. With the mixer running, add the butter a few pieces at a time. The mixture will have a sandy texture at first and then will begin to form peddle-size pieces. As soon as the dough starts to come together, stop the mixer. Make sure all the butter is well incorporated. If there are large butter pockets, mix for a few seconds more.

Form and roll the dough straight from the mixer. The dough becomes hard to work with if chilled.

Transfer the dough to a board and use the heel of your hand or a pastry scraper to shape the dough into a block about 5 by 7 inches. Cut the block into two pieces.

One at a time, roll each block of dough between two pieces of lightly floured parchment paper until about 1/8-inch thick. Using a cookie cutter, cut into 2 inch rounds. Place 1/2 to 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheet. You can form and roll the dough scraps once after the first roll.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through the baking. Remove from the oven and cool on the sheets for 2 to 5 minutes. They’ll be too soft to move straight from the oven. Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

To Assemble the Cookies:

Place half of the cookies upside down on a work surface. Whip the filling lightly with a whisk to loosen it. It will lighten in color and fluff up. Don’

t overwhip or the filling may begin to separate.

Transfer the filling to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/4-inch plain tip. You can just scooped the filling out by the half teaspoonful. Pipe or dollop one teaspoon of filling in the center of each upside down cookie. Gently, using your fingers, press the cookies together until the filling comes just to the edges.

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